Week 21 (September 30 - October 6): So I started this week with a bad attitude. I was still upset about the time it took to complete the 20 miles. I was trying to decide if I really wanted to run a marathon. I still went to the gym, but I was constantly thinking if I should really complete this marathon. Several people commented that I had did the training and I needed to get my reward, the gold medal. On Saturday, I didn't make my run because of a work event.
Week 22 (October 7 - 13): I missed the gym this week. School work won my time. I decided I needed to add more lower body weight training, two days a week instead of one. On Saturday, I did 10 miles in an effort to help some of my running buddies complete their mileage, I only needed to do 6 miles. It felt good to do a short run.
Week 23 (October 14 - 20): The week I was a little edgy because I was dreading running 23 miles on Saturday. As the week began to wind down, my attitude slowly began to change. Saturday morning, I didn't get up at 4 am as schedule, why...because of my neighbor's tendency to play his music until 3 am. So I delayed and delayed until I finally made it out the door. I did not want to run those miles. I looked at my watch, it was 10 am, a late start. I grab my race watch, turn it on and realize I forgot to charge it, it was at 40%. Doggonit!! I would have to rely on Runkeeper, which would be testing the longevity of my phone battery. I start my warm-up walk, then I start to run. I'm .68 miles into my run when I realize I wasn't hearing the interval changes. I stop running and check out my watch, it is set for swimming, UUUUGGGHHHH!!!! I readjust, set the watch correctly and started to run again. I run on the back road of Lancaster Rec, down Wintergreen to Dallas Avenue, back up Wintergreen to Cedar Valley College. Around Cedar Valley College, back up Wintergreen, then back down Wintergreen. I turned onto Dallas Avenue and ran around Lancaster Rec, 7 miles done. I headed on Dallas Avenue to Pleasant Run towards DeSoto. While running, I was honked at by several passing cars. I made it up Pleasant Run to DeSoto and turned onto Hampton Road towards Beltline. I turned on Beltline. I was so tired of running, but no body aches. Then my watch said 15 miles, dang it, only 15 miles. I had decided that I would make it to my cousin's house and whatever the mileage, I would be done. As soon as I finished that affirmation, I was passing a church and this guy walked up to me and said hang in there, the training will be so worth it. I thought how did he know I was training for a marathon. Well, I know how. I thanked him and kept moving. When I reached Cockrell Hill, I realized I would have to run to Cedar Hill, not my plan. Mile 18, I was out of water, not good. I told myself I would make it to Joe Wilson and turn around. It seemed that Joe Wilson was getting further and further away. I was beginning to get emotional and started fighting back the tears. That's when the Holy Spirit started talking with revelation about somethings that I had experienced recently. I told myself when I get to Mile 20, I'm quitting. I soon realized, I had to make it back to my car, my eyes welled up with tears. I said God please help me get to my cousin's house. At Mile 21, I had no more energy or desire to run, so I walked, and walked. I finally made it to my cousin's house 23.42 miles and 5:45:20 later. I was super funky and sweaty. I was able to sit down and reflect on the run. And made a promise to myself that I would never, ever run a marathon again. I will be forever a member of the One and Done Club. Forget about the huge medal from Little Rock, they can keep it.
Week 24 (October 21 - 27): This week will be a rest week because I need to allow my body to recover fully from the 23 miles. But I will be participating in the Allstate 13.1 on Saturday. Surprisingly, my body doesn't hurt. I'm a little stiff, but no pain.
Week 24 (October 28 - November 3): I took another rest week since I participated in the Allstate 13.1. I have really lost a lot of weight and inches. I'll have to do some more clothes shopping.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Saturday, September 28, 2013
4th Semester of My Pregnancy: Weeks 16-20
Week 16 (August 26 - Septmeber 1): I made it to the gym once this week. School started back this week. I have to figure out my schedule. Sleep, training, work, school, homework and a social life. I made a trip to Omaha for Labor Day weekend, I didn't get a chance to run, but I got plenty of sleep.
Week 17 (September 2 - 8): I made it to the gym once. I attended the BGR National Conference in Charlotte, NC. I should have tracked my walking miles because I'm positive we walked an ultra the entire weekend. I participated in the 10K event on Sunday. Charlotte is very hilly, but even with the missed gym times, my body still remembered my hill training. I didn't get tired until the last hill, which led to the finish line.
Week 18 (September 9 - 15): I made it to the gym, just once but I made it. Saturday I had 17 miles to complete. My running buddy Ve ran the first 6.5 miles with me, then she turned around to head back. I was doing okay until I reached mile 15, then my mind slipped. I started questioning myself as to why I set a goal that I didn't have the commonsense to give up on. By the time I finished, I had a new appreciation for my ancestors and their fight for freedom.
Week 19 (September 16 - 22): My routine is getting back on track. I just need to learn how to juggle everything. Full-time work, full-time school and full-time marathon training. I noticed that I'm losing weight. My legs are not toning as fast as the rest of my body. I made it to the gym as scheduled on Monday. Did my weight training and then I tried to ride the bike, that's where I messed up. I had 8 minutes until finish, when I began to feel dizzy. I stopped pedaling and tried to make it to the sanitation area, when my legs became really weak. So to prevent me from hitting the floor really hard, I laid it down. My vision became very blurry. I finally made it to the locker room and laid down on the bench. It took several minutes for me to recovery, so I headed to the shower. Wrong move, I should have went home. After showering, I became very dizzy. I prayed God please do not let me pass out in this shower naked. I made it to the bench again and slowly got dressed. Sunday, I ran the Love the Half Marathon. My goal was to keep my pace under 12 minutes. I was almost successful, I only went over 12 minutes twice. One was my rest and snack break. I finished with a time of 2:33.52. Pretty good!
Week 20 (September 23 - 29): I made it to the gym two days this week. I was in recovery from the half and rest before my 20 miles run on Saturday. On Saturday, my running buddy Brenda ran the first 9 miles with me. The next 11 were on my own. Again, at mile 15 I started questioning why would I do this to myself. Then the bad attitude crept in, this mess was taking too long to complete. Some older guy on a bike kept riding pass me shouting "go my friend, don't give up". After I forgot how many times he passed me, I thought about knocking him off the bike. Finally, I was finished and extremely angry, 5:09:15 later. I had to ask the members of NBMA as to why they do it. Sunday morning, I still had a nasty attitude.
Week 17 (September 2 - 8): I made it to the gym once. I attended the BGR National Conference in Charlotte, NC. I should have tracked my walking miles because I'm positive we walked an ultra the entire weekend. I participated in the 10K event on Sunday. Charlotte is very hilly, but even with the missed gym times, my body still remembered my hill training. I didn't get tired until the last hill, which led to the finish line.
Week 18 (September 9 - 15): I made it to the gym, just once but I made it. Saturday I had 17 miles to complete. My running buddy Ve ran the first 6.5 miles with me, then she turned around to head back. I was doing okay until I reached mile 15, then my mind slipped. I started questioning myself as to why I set a goal that I didn't have the commonsense to give up on. By the time I finished, I had a new appreciation for my ancestors and their fight for freedom.
Week 19 (September 16 - 22): My routine is getting back on track. I just need to learn how to juggle everything. Full-time work, full-time school and full-time marathon training. I noticed that I'm losing weight. My legs are not toning as fast as the rest of my body. I made it to the gym as scheduled on Monday. Did my weight training and then I tried to ride the bike, that's where I messed up. I had 8 minutes until finish, when I began to feel dizzy. I stopped pedaling and tried to make it to the sanitation area, when my legs became really weak. So to prevent me from hitting the floor really hard, I laid it down. My vision became very blurry. I finally made it to the locker room and laid down on the bench. It took several minutes for me to recovery, so I headed to the shower. Wrong move, I should have went home. After showering, I became very dizzy. I prayed God please do not let me pass out in this shower naked. I made it to the bench again and slowly got dressed. Sunday, I ran the Love the Half Marathon. My goal was to keep my pace under 12 minutes. I was almost successful, I only went over 12 minutes twice. One was my rest and snack break. I finished with a time of 2:33.52. Pretty good!
Week 20 (September 23 - 29): I made it to the gym two days this week. I was in recovery from the half and rest before my 20 miles run on Saturday. On Saturday, my running buddy Brenda ran the first 9 miles with me. The next 11 were on my own. Again, at mile 15 I started questioning why would I do this to myself. Then the bad attitude crept in, this mess was taking too long to complete. Some older guy on a bike kept riding pass me shouting "go my friend, don't give up". After I forgot how many times he passed me, I thought about knocking him off the bike. Finally, I was finished and extremely angry, 5:09:15 later. I had to ask the members of NBMA as to why they do it. Sunday morning, I still had a nasty attitude.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
3rd Semester of My Pregnancy: Weeks 11-15
Week 11 (July 22 - 28): This week was another week of missed workouts. The A/C is out at my house, it takes longer for me to fall asleep, which makes me drowsy in the morning. Plus, I still have my cold and congestion and the medicine I've been taking makes me even more tired. Saturday morning, me and the running buddies changed our run to be more of a fun run. Even though I don't like waking up early mornings on Saturday, I woke up to met 5:1 triplets at Katy Trail for a 5:30 am run. They had 12 miles, I only need 10.5 miles. What made the run so much fun, we stop to take photos in front of the Dallas B_G. Then we met up with the other ladies that were starting up at 6:45 am. Sometimes large groups take more time to organize. Along the trail, we posed for more photos with the Dallas B_G.
Week 12 (July 29 - August 4): I'm on vacation and decided to still stick to my workouts. On Monday, I added the cycling to my training on my non-run days. Since I arrived in Omaha late in the evening, I didn't go to the gym Tuesday morning. Wednesday, I headed to the local YMCA and ran my 3 miles on the treadmill. It took me a moment to figure out how to adjust it. I finally just settled for manual and it worked better for me. Thursday morning at the YMCA, my intentions were to run 30 minutes of slow pace run on the treadmill and the weights. Instead, I got trick into attending a boot camp called MOVE. And move is what we did. I don't know how many times we ran back and forth on the basketball court, I lost count. Then we had to do bear crawls and one backwards bear crawl. This was a difficult task for me because I kept losing my balance when I stood up. One time I slipped and hit my head against the brick wall, OUCH! After the floor fun, we did bench pressing, the stream and sauna rooms. I felt pretty detoxed after sitting in those rooms.
Week 13 (August 5 - 11): I blew this week off, no gym time. I'll use the sharing of my car with NeNe as my excuse. Saturday's BGR Group Run turned into a walk because of the pink running shoes that were meant for short distance miles, not long distance miles. The pink shoes didn't belong to me. Then there was the armadillo that I thought was chasing us, which caused us to sprint.
Week 14 (August 12 - 18): I blew this week of too, no gym time again. But I did some exercising at home, just some. I will be missing my Saturday run because of college orientation. I will commit to going back to the gym next week, yoga too.
Week 15 (August 19 - 25): No gym again this week, but I did pull out my running clothes. Saturday, did my first mileage passed a half marathon, 14 miles. We took our time, a little over 3 hours. I broke the clip on my Moractv and drank all my water, plus two gatorades. And once again my running buddies, Brenda and Ve, got me through. I played in the swimming pool that night which made my legs and back feel better. Sunday, I volunteered to be a cheerleader at The Hottest Half Marathon and 10K. I had the brilliant idea to walk from the finish line to the mile 10 marker, the give up spot. As I walked, I decided to use it as my recovery walk. By the time I made it to mile marker 11, I realized I made a bad decision and should have drove to mile marker 10. It was too hot to be strolling through White Rock Lake. I made it to 10 just in time for some runners and to observe the "Speed Granny". This lady walks circles around us, and I do mean walk. Speed Granny walks between a 9:30-10 minute mile, she's in her 90s. My goal is to beat her one day, just one race and I will be happy.
Week 12 (July 29 - August 4): I'm on vacation and decided to still stick to my workouts. On Monday, I added the cycling to my training on my non-run days. Since I arrived in Omaha late in the evening, I didn't go to the gym Tuesday morning. Wednesday, I headed to the local YMCA and ran my 3 miles on the treadmill. It took me a moment to figure out how to adjust it. I finally just settled for manual and it worked better for me. Thursday morning at the YMCA, my intentions were to run 30 minutes of slow pace run on the treadmill and the weights. Instead, I got trick into attending a boot camp called MOVE. And move is what we did. I don't know how many times we ran back and forth on the basketball court, I lost count. Then we had to do bear crawls and one backwards bear crawl. This was a difficult task for me because I kept losing my balance when I stood up. One time I slipped and hit my head against the brick wall, OUCH! After the floor fun, we did bench pressing, the stream and sauna rooms. I felt pretty detoxed after sitting in those rooms.
Week 13 (August 5 - 11): I blew this week off, no gym time. I'll use the sharing of my car with NeNe as my excuse. Saturday's BGR Group Run turned into a walk because of the pink running shoes that were meant for short distance miles, not long distance miles. The pink shoes didn't belong to me. Then there was the armadillo that I thought was chasing us, which caused us to sprint.
Week 14 (August 12 - 18): I blew this week of too, no gym time again. But I did some exercising at home, just some. I will be missing my Saturday run because of college orientation. I will commit to going back to the gym next week, yoga too.
Week 15 (August 19 - 25): No gym again this week, but I did pull out my running clothes. Saturday, did my first mileage passed a half marathon, 14 miles. We took our time, a little over 3 hours. I broke the clip on my Moractv and drank all my water, plus two gatorades. And once again my running buddies, Brenda and Ve, got me through. I played in the swimming pool that night which made my legs and back feel better. Sunday, I volunteered to be a cheerleader at The Hottest Half Marathon and 10K. I had the brilliant idea to walk from the finish line to the mile 10 marker, the give up spot. As I walked, I decided to use it as my recovery walk. By the time I made it to mile marker 11, I realized I made a bad decision and should have drove to mile marker 10. It was too hot to be strolling through White Rock Lake. I made it to 10 just in time for some runners and to observe the "Speed Granny". This lady walks circles around us, and I do mean walk. Speed Granny walks between a 9:30-10 minute mile, she's in her 90s. My goal is to beat her one day, just one race and I will be happy.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
I Miss Him
I have been doing really well with September 17 and 18. But this year that old hurt and pain resurfaced. I still walk around happy and joyful, like I don't have an urgent care in the world. But this pain is consuming me this year. Even though he passed away 9 years ago, I still can remember the phone call from my sister and hear her voice...Nora they found Daddy in his house dead. My thought was of both hurt and praise that night. I said it out loud Thank You God my Daddy's suffering is over. I'll make it pass this moment, I always do. But at this moment I really need a good cry. But I can't because I'm sitting at my desk and it might just draw too much attention. Then as fair as my skin is, I'll have the red face which no makeup can hide.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Today, August 20, 2013
Today I received another reminder from God that He was serious when He said I will open up the windows of Heaven pour out a blessing that you will not have room enough to hold. Well, the pouring on me was so large that I had to leave my office building because I was crying so hard from the blessing He poured on me. My last cry out pray to Him was to not let go of me and allow me a way out of something I had gotten myself into. When I say He answered above and beyond...trust, believe and know He answered. But the only condition, I can't tell what He did. How do I this, because during the midst of my crying from this abundance of happiness, only three people answered their phones. Those are the three He wanted to know if He will do it for me, He will do it for them.
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